A review by parkinglotbirds
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction by J.D. Salinger

5.0

It’s been many years since my high school aged love of Salinger/the Glass family stories. What a pleasure to return and find new and deeper meaning. What I like most about both novellas, as different as they are, is their psychological/emotional truth. The sibling relationships and family dynamics that unfold as you read the stories feel so grounded even if the Glass family itself is so “different”. The conspicuous absence of Seymour in the first is like a painting where all the background and negative space has been filled in, but the figure of the subject is completely blank. It’s Buddy’s grief circling endlessly around the memory and image and love for his brother. The second is experimental, stream of consciousness, and maybe a little more challenging, but I was in the right headspace to read it and found it to be lovely and sad and interesting.